Next, sweep a matte brown eye shadow in a shade close to your natural skin tone into your crease. I ended up mixing two shades from the Sonia Kashuk Eye on Neutral Palette ($20) to create a custom color (just for the heck of it).

Now, wet a flat eye shadow brush with water or a makeup setting spray, and use it to pat a bright purple shadow in the center and at the inside of your lids (the side closer to your nose). Aim for blending the purple into the black and gray gradient from the previous two steps. I used Urchin, the purple shade from the Pacifica Enlighten Palette in step 3.

Dust a beige on top of that, like the pearly base shade from ELF Beautiful Browns.

Line your water lines with a black liner (can’t go wrong with L’Oreal’s $7 Voluminous Smoldering Eyeliner in Black, a true black without any blue or green undertones), and give it some depth by lining the outer third of your lower lash lines with the same pencil.

Line your lower lash lines with the same shimmery blue shadow you used on your lids (layering it directly on top of the black liner from the previous step).

Make your eyes the focal point of the look by lining the inner corners along your lower lash lines with the teal shadow you used a moment ago on your lids.

Next, pat a shimmery gold eye shadow, like the gold shade from the Give Me Gold palette, on the inner halves of your lids.

Sweep a shimmery bronze eye shadow into your crease and the outer corners. I used the shimmery bronze from Give Me Gold for this.

Using the same liner to line your lower water lines, line your upper lash lines in a cat eye shape with a brown gel liner like L’Oreal’s Lacquer Liner in Bronze ($7).

Soften your cat eye liner look by layering a shimmery brown liner directly on top of the brown gel liner along your upper lash lines. I reached for the Give Me Gold palette again and used the dark brown.

I’ve been wearing brighter colors lately as well but mostly to distract people from all my preggy breakouts. Blah. At least I’m on trend!! I’m a big fan of the cool colors, especially the purple and teal. I’m going to have to try out some of these this weekend!Leah @ Mile High Beauty Blog recently posted … Poo~Pourri: Every Hostesses’ Best Friend?

Eeeee, I love everything! You brighten up any beach Karen, seriously! I especially love the first two very colourful looks, that teal liner is just so fun and it pairs amazingly well with a fuchsia lip! Must try this myself now ^^.Teri recently posted … Caudalie Divine Legs Tinted Body Lotion

Ugh, Karen, you’re killing me with the gorgeous eye looks and cute sunglasses! I need a new pair, the upper bridge-bar (they have a double bridge thing going on) is cracked. No idea what to do so you showing off these cute ones with gorgeous eye looks is inspiring!

Happy Friday! Oh gosh, there are SO many cute ones at Target right now. I usually don’t like to spend a ton of money on them because I end up losing or breaking them anyway. These are fun and trendy and are only $12, whoop-whoop!

Happy Friday to you too! I know exactly how you feel; you lose or break ‘em, why spend a lot?! I want something less hipster, since the ones I have are white square frames, and more vintage cat-lady starlet! I’m trying to make sure that our new kittens (took a pregnant stray in whose now a happy mommy) aren’t getting into things or stuck under the bed and doing a pretty look I hope to put up today. I think it’s a very refreshing look, since its mint eyeshadow and a little gold liner.

Our refrigerator went out, so first thing will refrigerator shopping. After that, I’m hoping to catch Gatsby or maybe Hangover 3 and a little makeup.shopping to seal the deal (gotta feed the addiction :D)

It was long too! I actually went to bed around 8 last night after another long day (work, job interview, having been at the hospital visiting an aunt the previous night), and besides getting up for the bathroom and a snack, didn’t get up until 7:30AM for another job interview! I also toured an apartment since we might move soon…

I just worked out, I hadn’t the past two days because they’d been so long, and I’d been so tired! But I also had a mini M&M blizzard today, so that was good.

Good for you for working out. I ended up skipping mine. I took some pics and then made dinner — improv pasta (it was kinda gross) and purple cauliflower and broccoli with capers. Now El Hub is making me watch a stressful French movie called Special Forces (so not relaxing).

Darn, I wish I got on here earlier, I just was at Target this afternoon. Picked up some cheap E.L.F goodies to try out :). My favorite is the teal, blue, and pink look.Heather Scoggins recently posted … Can Laser Therapy Get Rid of Acne Scars?

I love the step by step techniques (I am doing much better with blending but it wouldn’t have occurred to me that black, instead of grey, could be used to create the gradients of color), and I love that all of the makeup came from Target. I enjoy bright colors, myself, and I think they can be classy and sexy (and not Mimi from the Drew Carey Show) if they are well blended and created like your looks are. One of my favorite looks is to use a bright, sunny yellow and a neon orange from Make Up Forever together. I saw a runway version of it and modified it a little to make it everyday friendly. They are very bold colors but look great blended with a soft black, brown, or grey liner along the lash lines.

The teal one is gooooooooooooooooorgeous. I wish I knew all of the products you used so I can try this look at home (although I don’t know if the bronzer you used would be too dark on me! I am so pale!) The blue isn’t mentioned.

Karen, you look absolutely amazing!! You look younger than I do, and I’m 23. What primer/foundation etc combo are you using in these pics? Flawless! I can’t pick what look I like better, the purple or the teal. I’m so going to try both of them, though. Thanks for the suggestions!